Monday, March 23, 2015

Where Have I Been?!

It's been a hot second since my last update. Apparently after my half, my legs weren't the only part of me that needed a break.

I took most of the week off from running, so here's a different kind of post. I spent the weekend in Houston, TX with my administrative and curriculum teams for the annual Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) conference. It was a great opportunity to soak in some serious PD while bonding with the leaders of curriculum at my school.
The ladies at the assembly hall...
Education conferences are seriously like race expos on steroids.
We arrived in Houston late Friday after a full day of work. Saturday was our first day at the conference. Six of us attended and there were dozens of sessions to choose from, so we made sure to divide and conquer.
Teachers in their natural habitat...despite traveling from all over the world, we all seem to speak the same language.
3D art by Don't Let Them Drop.
What my day looked like.
 The keynote speaker on Sunday, Nicholas Negroponte at the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, talked about connectivity as a human right and providing laptops and tablets to every child in the world, no matter where they are. The photos he showed from the work he has done were really moving.
Needless to say, our days were packed. I was able to see four or five sessions each day, but it was hard to choose which to go to!
I obviously overbooked myself.
We finished each long day of note-taking (and honestly, I miss being a student sometimes, so it's fun to hear about new strategies and rewarding to hear that the strategies I already use are effective) with dinner and debriefing.
It was Elisa's first time at a hibachi grill!
I really wanted to run in Houston but our hotel wasn't in a very good spot for outdoor running. Monday morning I ran on the treadmill for the first time in about a year. I also did some squats and lunges, planks, and push-ups. It was a nice little workout.
I forgot how much I hate the treadmill. Even with Burn Notice and Law & Order: SVU I was bored out of my mind.
After one last session Monday, we all packed into our ginormous car (not to sound like an advertisement, but if you ever need to fit six adults and six huge suitcases in one car, the Suburban is the way to go) and headed to the airport.
Tomorrow it's business as usual as we return to school for the last couple days before spring break. I'm excited to begin implementing some of the new things I learned, and I'm really looking forward to planning some bigger new projects over the summer!

Do you attend professional conferences for your profession?
Have you ever been to Texas?
How do you fit working out into your work-travel schedule?

ABK

18 comments:

  1. It's been a while since I've gone to a professional conference. I usually find them to be quite boring. Working in marketing most of the people who speak at conferences also blog, so the material tends to just feel like a re-hash of whatever their last popular blog post or case study was.

    I went to Texas a couple of years ago. Everything was bigger. ;) It was sort of a whirlwind trip, but I thought everyone was really hospitable!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I definitely found that the service-workers were very hospitable. The hotel staff, restaurant servers, and staff at the conference were great; the regular folks weren't haha.

      Delete
  2. Sounds like you had a busy weekend.

    I usually go to one professional conference per year. I like them because it's a great chance to see a lot of friends from grad school that have moved on and now live all over the country. We often only see each other at conferences now, which is sad.

    I feel the same way about treadmill miles... there just isn't anything interesting enough on tv to make them fun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I never see anyone I know at conferences...it would be cool to reconnect with friends from school!

      Delete
  3. I used to attend a music conference (just a one day thing) but this past year it was at a school that was an hour away. I was not going to do the 2 hour commute. Not into it. We have school PD days all the time. Most of the time they don't have stuff for us music folk to do, but that is fine by me because I have plenty to do on my own! It's cool you actually got to go to TX! I have never been.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have tons of PD days at school but it's always stuff the county is forcing us to review, so it's rarely fun or even relevant to what we're doing. It was really nice to choose sessions that applied to me.

      Delete
  4. I used to love conferences when I was a teacher - always so many great new ideas to try.
    And, I'm from Texas and try to get back as often as possible:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Where in Texas are you from? I found Houston to not really be my style, but I've heard Austin is great!

      Delete
  5. Sounds like you had a fun time! That 3D art is messing with my brain, LOL

    I've only been to one professional conference, last summer - actually it was really just a two day "workshop" but kinda the same thing. It was nice to get out of the office for a while but it was really draining to sit in the same room for two days on end listening to lectures and I was so ready to go back to work. Never thought I'd say that! ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sitting for the sessions definitely reminds me of why students don't like to sit still in class. They get talked at for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week! No wonder they get antsy. Teachers, I've found, are terrible students; we all text and chit-chat during "class"!

      Delete
  6. I do love PD sessions like that which inspire and give you ideas. Tomorrow I'm on an accounting seminar (boring!) but then in April I am becoming a certified Barre instructor (fun!)!!! Good on you for relaxing after your half!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oooh, you're going to be a Barre instructor?!?! So cool!!! You are seriously on such an amazing fitness path!

      I love PD that is relevant and I can take something away from it; I hate PD that's just time-wasting!

      Delete
  7. No work conferences for me, but I would love to go to one! I love learning and I miss school too sometimes. If I could have afforded to stay in college I probably would have gotten another minor or something. And I hate the treadmill too. I can't do it most of the time it's just too boring. The one time I was able to go more mileage was when I covered the timer and just ran without thinking too much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's funny how some people are just MADE to be students for life. It may be one reason I became a teacher lol.

      Delete
  8. I'm going to be attending two conferences this year, but one will be in the city I'll be living in (Manhattan, KS) and the other is in Kansas City, so I guess it wont be much traveling. I think fitting in time to work out will still be important, since conferences really have a way of eating up all of your time.

    I'm glad you got a break from running! I think you deserved it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You'll be sitting for hours in the conferences, so finding time to work out really helps mentally too. I was going stir-crazy!

      Delete
  9. Wow that conference looks INTENSE! Glad you had a great time! (And that there was coffee on hand for that schedule haha!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure that Starbucks made a ridiculous profit over the weekend; every time I walked past it the line was 30+ people deep!

      Delete